Am Donnerstag, den 3. April fahren wir weiter in die Kaffeezone.SalentoIn the coffeezone, we got up at 6am, got into a Second World War Jeep to do the loneliest 4,5 hour hike in the "Valle de Cocora" which was so breathtaking we stopped every 5 minutes to tell each other how beautiful it was. The valley suddenly merged into a jungle with a little hummingbird house on top of the mountain as a destiny. We then did a little tour on a coffee farm - harvested and tasted the most amazing cup of coffee ever.Enough for 3-4 cups of coffeeWe spent 2 days in Pereira and stayed with a friend of a friend where we were treated so nicely we honestly thought about paying for the night at the end.Our guy Felipe took us to thermal springs, where we relaxed in the hot natural water or under the waterfalls before taking our flight to Medellín.Medellín used to be the most dangerous city worldwide until the death of the drug lord Pablo Escobar.

I might be the only person saying this but I prefered walking around in Bogotá, because people wouldn't shout after us and the looks we got were more silent than dangerous. But maybe that's just my personal feeling because Bogotá was something like home at least for a while.

I wanted to meet up with David, a friend from Berlin when we bumped into him randomly while walking by the university.San José (Capital of Costa Rica)Cartagena must have been by far the most beautiful colonial city I have ever seen. We met my parents there, which made it evenmore beautiful.

Going out one night revealed the true hostel-party-culture and we wouldn't want to live there and always be mistaken as lousy tourists. Bogotá was definitely the better choice to learn Spanish, also because of the heat.We shared our home for the next 4 days with pelicanes and crayfish. The island offered all you expect from the Caribbean (hammocks and beaches), so all we did was drink Coco Limonade, snorkel, kayak, watch Pelicanes and read. Life could have been worse.

We were spoiled with food and a great hotel to the maximum - but that was not the actual reason why I had a heartwarming time with Mama & Papa.Skipping PanamaThe original plan to sail to Panama via San Blas islands was abandoned after seeing rather disappointing pictures my parents had taken there.Panama also has an insane immigration policy which cost us money and nerves. So instead we decided to go to Costa Rica directly.Marcela - a 29 year old girl invited us to surf her couch for a couple of days and we ended up having an apartment to ourselves, driving to the coast with her and seeing 4 of their many houses. While staying in San José, we had two "pura vida" picknicks. We also met Mickey, a guy from South Korea who travels around the world for 4 years and is now riding around America on his motorbike like Che Guevara did.

Wir hatten Hängematten, Mangos und Heulaffen im Garten; Karl wurde in einen mit Stöckchen bewaffneten Angriff der Affengruppe verwickelt.San Juan del Sur(Nicaragua)We were surprised by how pretty gringo-party-village San Juan actually was. The houses are colorful, the beach is big and clean, they have cozy cafés and amazing bakeries!We slept in the most beautiful hostel so we decided to stay for longer, met Canadians, hung out in (Canadian) bars, "surfed" and enjoyed the starry sky from a hammock.

And even though the immense pool and air conditioned room were a nice change, it felt good to leave the expensive Resort and get back into the real world.

Mexico-CityAaah, Mechikoo!We adored the big (!!!) city, the diverse areas, the urban culture and the green spaces in between. We went to some of the best museums we've ever been to.We first stayed on blankets on the floor at a place where a cockroach hit my face at night but with a very, very nice guy who had never put butter on his bread before. It was pretty sad to watch as a German. I don't know what's up with with everybody's diet here. All they seem to eat is deep fried tortillas, meat, cheese and chicken in chocolate sauce and I wonder how at least some Mexians can stay fit.Frida Kahlo's corsettsPeople like to dance in DFThe national orchestra played and sung the EU-anthem here for usCancúnThe fact that I didn't take a single picture in Cancún speaks for itself - it was raining almost constantly due to a tropical storm, we had a hard time finding a good place to have coffee and then couldn't have it inside the mall because the AC was just too cold. We did stay with a nice couchsurfer couple though! They use a sponge and dish soap to clean their tomatos and salad ... it's weird to see how people differ in the kitchen. Also, the water looks fantastic even when the sky is grey.Isla HolboxIt also rained a lot on this little paradise island, but we had a nice time in our little hut and snorkeled with a whale shark - the biggest fish on earth - which was fascinating and beautiful and looked like in this google-image.Valladolid & Chichén ItzáMéridaTulumThe reason why people stay in Valladolid is called Chichén Itzá, one of the new seven world wonders, UNESCO world heritage and one of the largest Mayan cities around the 10th decade. We managed to arrive before the busloads full of sunburnt and obese Americans with fanny packs. Then we took the same pictures of the pyramids everyone else took that day. Around the little city Valladolid some "Cenotes" (a sinkhole) can be reached by bike and we found a private one for us to swim in.The Mayans liked to play "Three in a Row"We are currently spending a week in Mérida and improving our Spanish four hours a day in a lovely little school. The difference between Bogotá is huge, there is only one other guy in my class and even when we go for lunch with other students after class, all we speak is Spanish. I am very happy here, and enjoy the afternoon rains that cool down the 37° hot air. We found our favorite restaurants and cheap taco places and became buddies with the hostel staff. our schoolThe YucatánWe started to like Tulum right after we got off the bus and we fell in love with it when we saw the beaches. We had fun nights at bars, a great hostel atmosphere, an oceanview from Mayan ruins, bike tours and a shower in the rain.Laguna BacalarA friend from Tulum recommended the Lagoon Bacalar so we image-googled and decided to go. Lagoon - even the word makes you go "aaah". The Bacalar Lagoon made us go "whooa" though. Since it's off season (it sometimes rains for 5 minutes a day) you get a dock to yourself at the lagoon. They call it "la laguna de los siete colores" and even though we only counted five colors, we were still stunned by its beauty. Bacalar was also the place where I had the best pineapple and mango of my life. It's the season and even if hostels don't provide knifes - they all have a smoothie blender.Caye CaulkerThe holiday backpacking continued in Belize. Our little island was really just a 2 hour boat ride away from the Mexican border (we passed Leonardo DiCaprio's private island but he wasn't home) but we arrived in a completely different world. First, we cast off and arrived late, which strangely is unlikely in Mexico. Than English is the official language though nearly impassabl do andastan. Every second guy on the street looks like Bob Marley and when walking through the sandy roads on Caye Caulker, you can hardly believe that the country you're in, in fact has laws and an actual government.

The reason why we went apart from the different culture was the snorkeling trip we did for half a day - probably one of the best days in my life. We went eye to eye with nurse sharks, huuuge sting rays, turtles, every fish you can imagine, corrals and a manatee - now my favorite animal of all times. The animals were used to people being around them so the manatee twice came so close that I moved away to not touch it. It was slightly sad to leave the ocean world and get back on the boat.Flores & TikalBack to Guatemala for a stop! Flores is apretty village-like town located on an island in a lake.We visited our favorite of all ruins in "Tikal", where the Mayans built their city for 200.000 people in the middle of the rain forest 2000 years ago. What we did was to get up at 2am, climb up one of the pyramids, sit down on top where the whole group was suddenly very quiet to hear the jungle waking up and watch the sun come up over the ruins.PalenqueVillahermosaLas VegasCentral America

At midnight, five hours before our bus was supposed to leave from Flores to Palenque, Karl couldn't find his cellphone that he had seen 3 hours ago before we left the hostel for dinner. Luckily, the hostel owner had installed some security cameras a couple of weeks ago so we saw that a staff member had taken it. It was nowhere to be found and the workers phone was turned off. He was supposed to come in the next morning at 6:30am. Just two hours after our bus would had left. Karl wanted to wait.So I decided to go to Palenque by myself to wait for Karl to arrive 24 hours later since I didn't want to pay for the busride again. At that point, I didn't know I would be riding that solo. I was the only one in the little bus that took me to the border and the only tourist I saw on the entire way. It was a long and uncomfortable journey, including a little boat ride to cross the border between Guatemala and Mexico.Then in Mexico, our little bus was stopped 5 (!!!) times by either the military or the police and I witnessed Mexican corruption at its worst.

Palenque is one of these places where you don't feel bad after leaving after just one night.Where the hostel staff just doesn't care about a thing, old guys hit on any light skinned girl they see and the heat simply makes everything unbearable. I drank 5 liters of water yesterday and since I am currently applying for universities and need a laptop and a cool functioning brain Karl and I decided to give ourself some luxery and stay in an air conditioned room for two nights before leaving the Central American part of our journey behind us and going to Las Vegas.The good room turned out to be a fantastic idea, since Villahermosa might be the most unattractive and untouristy town in Mexico and people didn't seem to like us very much – mainly because we often get mistaken as Dutch and the Netherlands had just beaten the crying nation.Las Vegas - the mirror of a nation, the display window of the American Dream.Hell for budget travelers! Loads of homeless gamblers on the street.It is amazing to see and you feel like in a different world out there in the desert with 45°, but we couldn't really connect with the people there I guess.

Unser host hat uns mit zu einem Float genommen, das heißt, dass man sich in einen aufgeblasenen Reifen auf einen Fluss setzt und 4 Stunden mit einem Bier oder Kokosnusswasser die Strömung hinab treiben lässt.Seattle fand ich nicht ganz so spitze wie Portland, aber wie jede andere Stadt auch gewinnt es durchs Meer und die umliegenden Berge.Wir haben bei einem Wrestler gewohnt, was uns einen kleinen amüsanten Einblick in den Sport gegeben hat.Ansonsten macht sich langsam eine ziemliche Reisemüdigkeit breit und wir können uns nicht mal mehr für Museen oder lange Touren aufraffen.Salt Spring IslandComing back to Salt Spring 6 years after my last visit felt better than I thought. I looked at the places with different eyes and saw a beauty and community drive I never appreciated enough at the time when I lived there for a year.Our amazing guide and friend Margo took us kayaking with seals and song jamming. At night, we went swimming in the glowing and sparkling phosphorescence-Pacific. I had my long missed Mocha and Power Sphere, Pizza at Myriam & Graham's and a happy heart!BC Ferry ridesChocolate BeachKarl left for Chicago / Toronto / Detroit / Montréal this morning, now it's just me and Anna and all the Canadians left in Vancouver. We live in apartments of different friends and are always doing something. We went to parties, beaches, mountains and lakes and the "being tired of traveling" mood turned into not wanting to leave. Vancouver turns me into the person I want to be and makes me forget about all the bad things.Returning HomeApart from all the memories I gathered, I carry some new scars and bruises home. I had to sew and repair my backpack a couple of times, I had to throw away two pairs of shoes and my shirts are full of wholes.

I learned how to be more patient with people - service in Mexico is just not as fast as in Germany and it's okay to wait for a bus in Nicaragua for more than an hour.I know a little more what I want to do with my time and studies and what I don't want to do. At least I know what it takes to make me genuinely happy. As always - traveling made me appreciate home. Not necessarily Berlin, but just being home and having a fully equipped kitchen and a coffee with people who you didn't just meet yesterday and really know you.My parents gave me the greatest support I could ask for and I might have done it without the financial aspect- but never without the helping organizing hands and ears at home.The places I didn't want to leave were Tikal in Guatemala, the Laguna Bacalar in Mexico, the coffee zone in Colombia and Vancouver. I'm sure I'll move back there for a longer period of time soon.

Now I'm unpatiently waiting for the universities to accept me for a psychology master's and for Anna-Lena to follow me home from Canada.